Skirted projectiles for railguns

Patent · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:869105

Hawke, Ronald S ^[1]; Susoeff, Allan R ^[2]

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1. Livermore, CA
2. Pleasanton, CA

A single skirt projectile (20) having an insulating skirt (22) at its rear, or a dual trailing skirt projectile (30, 40, 50, 60) having an insulating skirt (32, 42, 52, 62) succeeded by an arc extinguishing skirt (34, 44, 54, 64), is accelerated by a railgun accelerator 10 having a pair of parallel conducting rails (1a, 1b) which are separated by insulating wall spacers (11). The insulating skirt (22, 32, 42, 52, 62) includes a plasma channel (38). The arc extinguishing skirt (34, 44, 54, 64) interrupts the conduction that occurs in the insulating skirt channel (38) by blocking the plasma arc (3) from conducting current from rail to rail (1a, 1b) at the rear of the projectile (30, 40, 50, 60). The arc extinguishing skirt may be comprised of two plates (36a, 36b) which form a horseshoe wherein the plates are parallel to the rails (1a, b); a chisel-shape design; cross-shaped, or it may be a cylindrical (64). The length of the insulating skirt channel is selected such that there is sufficient plasma in the channel to enable adequate current conduction between the rails (1a, 1b).

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 5275083
• OSTI ID: 869105
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/89/102/124/
10
11
1a
1b
20
22
30
32
34
36a
36b
38
40
42
44
50
52
54
60
62
64
accelerated
accelerator
adequate
blocking
channel
chisel-shape
comprised
conducting
conducting current
conduction
cross-shaped
current
current conduction
cylindrical
design
dual
enable
extinguishing
form
horseshoe
insulating
insulating skirt
interrupts
length
occurs
pair
parallel
parallel conducting
plasma
plasma channel
plates
projectile
projectiles
rail
railgun
railgun accelerator
railguns
rails
rear
selected
separated
single
skirt
skirt projectile
skirted
spacers
succeeded
sufficient
trailing
wall